OT: Mozart (was Re: perspective on ruby)

[Dave Benjamin]

On Thu, 20 Apr 2006, Alex Martelli wrote:

> Edward Elliott <nobody at 127.0.0.1> wrote:
>   ...
>> course in C++ doesn't cut it, the curriculum should either use different
>> languages fitted to each task or emphasize a single language with broad
>> abilities (picking the best programming model for each task).  Java is
>
> The only "single language" I could see fitting that role is Mozart,
> deliberately designed to be SUPER-multi-paradigm -- not even Lisp and
> Scheme (the only real competition) can compare.

I agree that Mozart/Oz is probably the most ambitiously multi-paradigm 
language out there, and anyone interested in some real mind expansion 
should really check out the excellent book, "Concepts, Techniques, and 
Models of Computer Programming" by Peter Van Roy and Seif Haridi.

However, my impression of Mozart/Oz so far can be summed up like this: 
"You can have any paradigm you want, as long as it's concurrent". The 
degree to which out-parameters are used (in the form of "dataflow 
variables") is very unusual for OO or FP, and this is a source of both 
amazement and confusion for me. It's clearly possible to program in many 
styles, but you still need to adapt your thinking to the Mozart way.

Also worth a mention is Alice ML, which runs on the Mozart system but is 
statically typed, type-inferred, very similar to SML but with concurrency 
support (lazies and futures), typesafe marshalling, and "packages", which 
allow for dynamically-typed interfaces between modules.

-- 
    .:[ dave benjamin -( ramen/sp00 )- http://spoomusic.com/ ]:.
    "one man's constant is another man's variable" - alan perlis